Scrapping an unfavourable survey on falling consumer expenditure is the latest assault on India’s statistical machinery. If it continues on this path, where will the government go to find credible data for policymaking?
P.C. Mohanan wasn’t surprised at all with the news on 15 November. A career statistician for over 30 years and a former acting chairman of the National Statistical Commission, Mohanan had learnt to read between the lines. And interpret silences. Especially that of governments about economic data during a downturn. Particularly when a council of ministers goes overboard insisting that all is well with the economy. Mohanan has been through it all.
The last time such a situation arose and the government kept delaying the release of a periodic jobs survey by the National Sample Survey Office, or NSSO, he …
Pradip is a co-founder at The Morning Context and leads our newsletters vertical. He has previously worked at The Ken as a staff writer, at Mint as an assistant features editor and the Deccan Chronicle as a copy editor. He works with a slew of expert newsletter writers across subjects and domains. His own writing spans the gig economy, farmers caught in the crossfire of technology, global warming and parents trapped in the edtech wave. Some of his best stories have come at the intersection of technology and human endeavour.
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